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He sure knows his food
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Yanking eclectic food out of rarefied five-star environments, A.D. Singh brought fine dining to the suburbs
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People needed a place to hang out, chat, spend time in the company of friends and family A.D. Singh
PIONEERING VENTURES A.D. Singh: `People, leadership, and management skills are my strengths' Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.
He is hip and articulate and knows his hummus from his falafel. On a rather dank afternoon, I meet with the man who has successfully altered the concept of fine dining in the country. A.D. Singh, best known for the Olive Bar and Kitchen in Mumbai, and more recently in Bangalore, definitely means business. Bangalore's own cognoscenti are busy now lapping up his offerings at the Olive here.
Walk into the suburban restaurant in Mumbai or its counterpart in Delhi, and chances are that you will spot Shah Rukh Khan enjoying a quiet dinner or perhaps even Priyanka Gandhi. Not a surprise this; after all the restaurant was included in the coveted Conde Nast Traveller's Hot List.
The term "urban chic" best describes the amiable A.D. who worked at this Master's in Engineering in the United States and then rather unwittingly ventured to revolutionise the Indian lifestyle and restaurant industry.
Defining moments happen in life at most unexpected times and for A.D., a white collar job with TCS soon after coming back to India proved to be just that. "In Talegaon, Pune, I realised that I had to indulge in some soul-searching," he reminisced. The exercise took him across India as he worked with NGOs, like most young people who yearn to find themselves and their calling.
Nevertheless, organising a barge party for a sibling's wedding proved to be the turning point for this global Mumbaikar who has his roots in Delhi. Party Lines, his maiden entrepreneurial offering, was established soon after and A.D had indeed taken the first, tentative steps in a direction that has little to do with engineering.
His pioneering venture, Just Desserts, established in 1990 was a jazz café serving only desserts and coffee; it was but a breath of fresh air in a slightly jaded and bored society that was anxious to live it up. Liberalisation had not yet swept the nation and change was certainly most welcome. A.D. has been unstoppable ever since.
"Fine dining was restricted to five-star hotels which were more often than not stifling and formal," he says. "I wanted to break that barrier and wanted to give the suburbs something," he adds, after a thoughtful pause.
First came the popular Not Just Jazz By The Bay in 1995 located in the financial district of Mumbai, Copa Cabana — the Latino bar in 1996, and then the tremendously successful Bowling Company — all of A.D's ventures left Mumbaikars hungry for more.
"People needed a place to hang out, chat, spend a few hours in the company of friends and family, the way Italians do, and eat eclectic cuisine as well," he states emphatically. And voila! the Olive Bar and Kitchen was born in the year 2000. "People, leadership, and management skills are my strengths," mentions Singh who is a huge sports fan, and a keen golfer himself. Personally, he admits to having a weakness for desserts and Japanese fusion cuisine.
"Work is my passion," concedes the man who has created and built several restaurant brands over the last 15 years. His contribution to the growth of stand-alone restaurants in the country is undoubtedly an inspiration.
HARIPRIYA SRINIVASAN
This column features those who choose to veer off the beaten path.
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